Chicks

I have 9 chicks about 1 month or a little over old. And I was wondering if I can keep them outside in their coop. Its inclosed and I have just a small opening for them to get in and out. But at night I'll close that opening. Do I need a light. Or is it warm enough outside I don't need it? It gets to about 55 degrees at night now. So should I keep them back inside or outside OK.

Hi and welcome to BYC. It may be useful to acclimatise your chicks to the outdoors initially by letting them out for say 30 minutes and observing them (if they huddle together, they are too cold, but if they do their usual chick thing, then they are fine) and do this daily by increasing the duration. I'll let others with more experience chime in with the nighttime set up - I live in a warm climate, and thankfully don't have to worry about cold weather!

The members here are amazing - very friendly and helpful, so if you need an answer to a question or simply want some reassurance that what you are doing is ok, then post away - we all help each other out here at BYC.

There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to join the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around the run.

We've got two Buff Opingtons, and both seem to be completely healthy except that one of them has an strange way of drinking water. I know how chickens tilt their head back to drink, but this gal flings her neck back, often tipping over backwards or sitting down in the process. We've checked out "stargazing" but we're pretty sure it's not that.

We've got two Buff Opingtons, and both seem to be completely healthy except that one of them has an strange way of drinking water. I know how chickens tilt their head back to drink, but this gal flings her neck back, often tipping over backwards or sitting down in the process. We've checked out "stargazing" but we're pretty sure it's not that.